Aden- The Shabwah Governorate is considered a vital location for Yemeni insurgent militia, across which oil byproducts can be smuggled. The area is also a prominent barren desert rich with fossil fuels.
Given that the governorate is close to Marib and Al Bayda cities, and encompasses an array of different routes perfect for trafficking, it is highly valued by insurgency militias or al-Qaeda off-shoots in Yemen.
The legitimate government liberating Shabwah’s towns one after the other had highly corroborated its stance against that of the insurgency’s, which had on multiple occasions only proved political passiveness and field inaction.
The insurgency’s apathy was always faced by government perseverance for invoking a peaceful solution and restoring a “happy” Yemen.
Beihan, a town in western Yemen located in the Shabwah governorate, along with an eastern strategic mountain had been liberated on Sunday the by national army and popular resistance forces. A score of similar sites in the Usaylan district were freed from militia dominance.
Colonel Saleh Alqlaibi in a press conference on Sunday confirmed that men from the popular resistance and the national army had taken control over several strategic strongholds in Beihan.
Alqlaibi revealed that the army and the resistance are in control of nine main locations: Al Salim, Aekdh, Al Alam, Shamis, Lyhmor, Al Aar, Bulbom, Al Hajr and Al Safraa.
Sources close to the Popular Resistance stated that the battles are ongoing in the Al Hajr valley, and that the Houthi militias and supporters of the ousted President Ali
Abdullah Saleh have withdrawn to eastern Al Naqb. 11 national army and resistance members were reportedly killed at the clashes, sources added.
Military sources told Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper that the national army and the resistance had successfully taken control over Shamis Mountain in the Usaylan district on Sunday after freeing Akedh and are on their way to liberate Al Alam area.
Sources added that the forces attacked insurgency sites in response to the militias violating the truce several times. Houthis and pro-Saleh militias bombed military and resistance-held sites. Not only that, but residential neighborhoods north of the Directorate Asilan Shabwa were also subjected to multiple insurgency shelling.
In turn, leader of the southern popular resistance Ameen Jarbou Alensi said that the battle with militias and forces of the ousted Saleh is ongoing. Victory is looming after many pivotal sites have been freed from insurgency, Alensi said. He reiterated that victory far and foremost has been achieved by army and the resistance heroes who have been putting their lives at stake in battles.